Museum education is an important part of the role of museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

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Introduction

A museum's collection

Collection (museum)

A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented...

 can be used to support education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 in a variety of ways. For example, many museums produce teaching kits

Teaching kit (museum)

A teaching kit is a teaching resource developed by a museum education department with the intention of creating cross-curricular learning. Such kits often include many resources, such as an educators' guide, a CD-ROM with works of art and primary sources , overhead transparencies, posters,...

 to aid school teachers in using their education resources, often in association with a school trip to the museum.
In supports of its educational activities, a museum may have an education officer, an education department (e.g., see), or even an education center, depending on its size the importance attached to its educational role.

Publications

The Journal of Museum Education (JME) is a journal covering the theory, training, and practice of the museum education field from the Museum Education Roundtable. Articles are written by museum, education, and research professionals.

Examples

The Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 in the USA provides extensive educational facilities, aimed at educators, families, and students.

Schools

A major part of museum attendance is through organised school trips to a museum where a structured visit with be used to augment and enhance the curriculum, under the direction of a school teacher, often with the help of museum staff. Typically there is some preparation for the visit beforehand and school work building on the trip afterwards.

Some schools have a special affiliation with museums, for example the New York City Museum School

New York City Museum School

The New York City Museum School is a public school for grades 9–12 in Chelsea, Manhattan, York City, USA.The NYC Museum School offers students access to primary resources in the sciences, history, literature and the arts...

 in the USA and The Langley Academy in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

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The Museum Institute for Teaching Science (MITS), based in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, USA, was founded in 1983. It provides resources to K-8 school

K-8 school

A K-8 school in the United States is a school that combines both elementary school and middle school students in the range from kindergarten through eighth grade.- Examples :* David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, North Miami, Florida...

 teachers of engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, and technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

. MITS initiates and sponsors innovative science teaching methods at both public and private schools in cooperation with educators at science

Science museum

A science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...

 and natural history museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

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Guided tours

Many larger museums provide guided tours, possibly in several languages. Audio tour

Audio tour

An audio tour or audio guide provides a recorded spoken commentary, normally through a handheld device, to a visitor attraction such as a museum. They are also available for self-guided tours of outdoor locations, or as a part of an organised tour. It provides background, context, and information...

s are also available in many museums, using a hand-held listening device. This has been generalized to the concept of a multimedia electronic museum guide. Cell phone tours are possible if the pricing in a particular country is suitable for extensive cell phone usage.

External links

• Museum Education Monitor monthly e-newsletter on Facebook
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